The long-in-development remake of Poltergeist is officially moving forward. MGM and Fox 2000 will co-finance and distribute film, billed as a “revisionist take on the classic horror film.” Gil Kenan (Monster House) is directing from a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Lindsay-Abaire (Oz The Great and Powerful). Sam Raimi is among the producers and production starts this Fall. Read More »

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This weekend saw the release of Fede Alvarez’s The Evil Dead, an even grislier remake of Sam Raimi‘s 1981 horror flick. But did you know that the so-called “original” was a remake of sorts as well?

Granted, Raimi’s film wasn’t a do-over of a beloved classic — rather, it was a feature-length retooling of a short “prototype” film he’d made himself a few years earlier under the title Within the Woods. Future Evil Dead stars Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss play the main characters, who are disturbed by demonic forces during a weekend in a remote cabin. Sound familiar? Watch the whole thing after the jump.

The remake of Sam Raimi‘s first signature film is now open. After a long period of speculation about the possibility of a fourth Raimi Evil Dead film, or a remake by some other filmmaker, audiences have a chance to see what Fede Alvarez has done with Evil Dead. This remake has some ideas of its own, as it follows a group of young friends to a remote cabin where one plans to detox. But it also has a heavy reliance on Raimi’s set pieces, many of which are firmly entrenched as calling cards for his career.

Beginning with its premiere at SXSW there has been mixed reception to the remake — some love it for the over the top violence, while others (myself included) think that, yeah, the gore is good, but there’s not enough of a movie there. So weigh in on the conversation — let us know what you thought of Alvarez’s Evil Dead, and keep in mind that spoilers are fully encouraged in the comment thread below. Read More »

In my review of Evil Dead, this year’s remake of Sam Raimi‘s career-making 1981 film, I mentioned that this movie might actually exist in the same timeline as Raimi’s movies. It isn’t locked down in the film that such a thing is the case, but it is suggested.

Recently, original Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell went a lot farther, saying at a post-screening Q&A that plans for sequels to both this new Evil Dead series and Raimi’s own movies might eventually merge the two storylines. We couldn’t confirm his quote at the time. At today’s WonderCon panel for the remake, director Fede Alvarez confirmed the ambition to top off his own Evil Dead 2 and Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness 2 with a film that brings the storylines together. Read More »

When people think of The Wizard of Oz, they think of the 1939 film starring Judy Garland. Yellow brick roads, munchkins, ruby slippers, the wicked witch, all that stuff. Fast forward about 75 years and Disney releases Oz the Great and Powerful, a prequel that features iconography very similar to, but not exactly the same, as the famous film. The reason? Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1939 classic, but not the L. Frank Baum book it’s based on, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Sam Raimiand his team were very careful not to use any of Warner Bros.’ intellectual property, going so far as having lawyers present during production to make sure they didn’t cross the line. So there are no ruby slippers, the witch isn’t the same color green, the Emerald City looks different, etc. It’s close, but just different enough to avoid a lawsuit.

On its opening weekend, Disney and Raimi’s gamble paid off, grossing an impressive $80 million and work on a sequel has begun. The cash is rolling in for the Mouse House much to the chagrin of Warner Bros., who rightfully feels a certain ownership to the property.

The Los Angeles Times has a fascinating article on how the success of Oz will not only help Disney, but set up a major rivalry between them and Warners who has several Oz related projects in the pipeline including multiple movies at various stages of development. Read More »

There are days when it feels like all anyone does in Hollywood anymore is make sequels. But today, two folks have decided to opt out of their respective franchises’ next steps.

Though Disney’s reportedly eager to move forward on an Oz The Great and Powerful sequel, director Sam Raimi says he has no plans to direct it. Over at Sony, meanwhile, Nicolas Cage says Ghost Rider 3 could still get made — but not with him. Hit the jump to keep reading.

Once upon a time, Sam Raimi wanted to call his third Deadite-killing expedition Medieval Dead, and briefly flirted with the title Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness, before simply releasing the movie as Army of Darkness in 1992.

There’s no question that the film is a sequel to Evil Dead II; it uses Bruce Campbell as the same lead character, Ash, and involves many familiar Evil Dead elements. But Army of Darkness had a much more broad, comedy-influenced tone, as well as a heaping dose of fantasy and medieval elements.

Fast-forward to now, when we’ve been hearing that Sam Raimi and his brother Ivan could finally be working on the Evil Dead 4 script that has been rumored for years. But long-time producer Rob Tapert now says that the film won’t be Evil Dead 4, but Army of Darkness 2. Read More »

While Sam Raimi‘s maintained that his breakup with Sony’s Spider-Man franchise was an amicable one, he’s remained understandably reluctant to actually see where the property went next. While doing press for Oz: The Great and Powerful, Raimi likened seeing Marc Webb‘s The Amazing Spider-Man to attending an ex-girlfriend’s wedding. “I don’t have the guts,” he admitted.

But now it seems he’s finally gotten over his unease. In a very recent interview, Raimi revealed that he’d finally gotten around to checking it out. And, as it turned out, he “loved” the results. Hit the jump to read his comments.